Breed of horse
Falabella
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/FalabellaFestivo.jpg/220px-FalabellaFestivo.jpg) A stallion
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Conservation status
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Other names
| - Falabella Miniature Horse
- Falabella Pony
- Argentine Dwarf
- Miniature Horse
- Toy Horse
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Country of origin
| Argentina
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Distribution
| Americas, Europe
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Standard
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Weight
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Height
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The
Falabella
is an Argentine
breed
of small
horse
. It is among the smallest of horse breeds, with a height at the
withers
in the range 63?86 cm (25?34 in).
[3]
: 465
.
History
[
edit
]
The horses of
South America
descend from
Andalusian
and other
Iberian
stock brought to the
western hemisphere
by the
Spanish
. In the southern part of the continent, significant numbers of these horses developed within geographically isolated conditions and by the mid-nineteenth century there were some small, inbred animals in the herds of Mapuche of southern Buenos Aires province in Olavarria, Argentina.
[4]
The Falabella was originally developed in
Argentina
from local horses of
Criollo
stock, beginning in 1868 with the breeding program of Patrick Newtall. When Newtall died, the herd and breeding methods were passed to his son-in-law, Juan Falabella. He added additional bloodlines, including the
Welsh Pony
,
Shetland pony
, and small
Thoroughbreds
. With considerable
inbreeding
, he was able to gain consistently small size within the herd.
[
citation needed
]
Beginning in the 1940s, a descendant, Julio C. Falabella, created a formal
breed registry
, the
Establecimientos Falabella,
now the
Asociacion de Criadores de Caballos Falabella
(Falabella Horse Breeders Association), and worked to standardize the breed to reach a consistent height, first achieving an average size of under 100 cm (40 in) Later breeders developed the modern standard, a horse breed that averaged approximately 76 cm (30 in) in height.
[4]
Characteristics
[
edit
]
The height of a fully-grown Falabella varies between 71 and 86 cm (28 and 34 in).
[5]
Falabella foals are very small, standing around 30 to 56 cm (12 to 22 in) tall at birth, and maturing to their adult height by the age of three.
[6]
The Falabella has the proportions of a horse, with conformation similar to that of a
Thoroughbred
or
Arab
. The body is small and compact, with a sleek coat and a slim frame.
[
citation needed
]
Bay
(or a variant of bay, called "brown") and
black
are the most common colors, but there are also
pintos
,
palominos
and other spotting patterns found. Black or red
leopard
-spotted Falabellas (resembling, but not the same as the
Appaloosa
horse breed) also exist, but are not common.
[4]
The Falabella is kept as a pet or for
show
.
[7]
: 508
It can be
ridden
by children no more than about eight years old, or trained to perform tricks or pull a small
cart
.
[8]
: 96
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Falabella
at Wikimedia Commons